New Urban Development: Looking Back to See Forward Review

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New Urban Development: Looking Back to See Forward ReviewDr. Gruen has provided a very readable presentation of fundamental economic theory and then exposed in practical terms how some of the value judgements underpinning various planning, zoning & financial regulatory policies have, over time, worked to produce a variety of unintended but predictable consequenes in residential and commercial real estate markets.
Whether analyst, developer or member of a policy-making authority, this is a thought provoking must read. I am greatful for the contribution.New Urban Development: Looking Back to See Forward OverviewThe recent recession is one result of how local planning laws and practices have stifled competition, discouraged innovation, and artificially pushed up prices in America's most economically vibrant regions. Economist and consultant Claude Gruen unravels the story behind how these unintended consequences have resulted from the evolution of local zoning, growth controls, and laws intended to increase housing affordability.New Urban Development traces how locally induced housing cost increases led federal policy-makers to toss out the safeguards against lending excesses that had been put in place during the 1930s. But the story begins much earlier, during the colonial era, continuing up through the mortgage collapse that ushered in the recession of 2008. In his sweeping history of these issues, Gruen considers gentrification, environmentalism, sprawl, anti-sprawl movements, and more. His clarification of how urban development change occurs backs up his recommendations for increasing the production of housing and replacing obsolete commercial and industrial spaces with development that serves the twenty-first-century economy. New Urban Development specifies thirteen changes to policies at the federal, state, and local levels to provide better and less expensive urban housing, desirable neighborhoods, and thriving workplaces across the country.

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Politics and Pasta: How I Prosecuted Mobsters, Rebuilt a Dying City, Dined with Sinatra, Spent Five Years in a Federally Funded Gated Community, and Lived to Tell the Tale Review

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Politics and Pasta: How I Prosecuted Mobsters, Rebuilt a Dying City, Dined with Sinatra, Spent Five Years in a Federally Funded Gated Community, and Lived to Tell the Tale ReviewFor me this was a very exciting and entertaining read. Not only is it very often laugh out loud funny at Buddy's sense of humor, it also takes you inside his very exciting and eventful life. You learn so much from this book about insider politics and politicians both good and bad along the way. People I work with want to read this book simply from hearing me laugh out loud so often while reading it.
Over the years I watched the news, read the papers, read the books, and listened to talk radio all hammer the Mayor relentlessly and I always wanted to hear the other side of the argument. Something just never seemed to add up to me. There always seemed to be inconsistencies in the reporting as if they all had a vendetta against him or some sort of jealousy or ulterior motive. Certain judges rulings in the court case perplexed me as so very unfair and seriously biased. FINALLY you get to hear the other side of it, and it's revealed in a very witty and interesting story.
I never lived in Providence but followed Buddy's life through the media and watched firsthand the transformation of the city from the time I was a teenager, clubbing and taking advantage of its nightlife, up until today, over 30 years later. Arguably the result of Buddy's vision and tenacious resourcefulness the city today bares no resemblance to the dull gray lifeless place it used to be. In his book he'll let you in on the iron will and determination it took to make this transformation happen. I loved this book, it was so much fun to read.Politics and Pasta: How I Prosecuted Mobsters, Rebuilt a Dying City, Dined with Sinatra, Spent Five Years in a Federally Funded Gated Community, and Lived to Tell the Tale Overview

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The Regional City Review

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The Regional City ReviewThis is yet another book on a New Urbanist idea.
This one describes the idea of transit oriented communties. These are relatively dense planned communities that try to maintain what is seen as the essentials of small community life.
The density and distribution of these communities make them amenable to public transport. However more emphasis is placed on the development of community. Shopping facilities are centralized and made accessible to pedestrians. Public buildings and public space like squares are made central to the life of the community. The public buildings are given distinguished architecture to show their importance to the community. The public park or square is placed at the hub of planned pedestrian traffic to provide a place for unplanned meetings and interactions.
As it is this soert of community will probably work. The idea of the public square at a transportation crossroads as a means to creatre interaction is straight out of Bill Hillier's seminal work 'Space is the machine.' With proper attention to the principles presented by Hillier, there is no reason why a community designed in the way advocated here cannot produce the types of interactions advocated within this book.
However the book does not go far enough to truly identify what these principles are or even to state clearly and directly what basic principles are guiding the plans that it advocates. It would be possible to create developments that follow the plans described here that would work against the outcomes that it is advocating. Hillier's book, in its analysis of some modern housing estates based on similar goals, demosntrates this.
Yet there is something fundamentally wrong with this book. It is a basic statement of architectural determinism. Traditional suburbs are blamed for all problems in society from environmental pollution to school shootings and possibly even to asteroid impacts causing mass extinctions. There seems to be nothing wrong in society that is not the fault of suburbs and that cannot be fixed by these pedestrian-based communities.
The author acknowleges that the autonomy and privacy provided by the suburban form is attractive to many. He even states that his suggested community form is not antithetical to it. However following that one statement the remainder of the book is a jerimiad against suburban life. Privacy and autonomy references are replaced with descriptions of isolation and alienation.
The book would be more convincing if it remained an advocacy for its desired form. There is no doubt that this form if designed properly can foster the close community life that many people find very attractive. However not all people are attracted to this sort of life. Many people prefer the social autonomy that is provided to them in suburbs. With modern communication mechanisms like the telephone, Email, automobile etc, they can maintain multiple social netowkrs each with the social distance that they find comfortable. They are not forced to interact with a neighbor that they do not care for simply because his residence is nearby.
All in all this is a good book for its purpose. The unfortunate blathering about the short comings of suburbs distracts from its main purpsoe and weakens its argument. However many will find the small community life presented here very attractive.
It is worth reading despite these handicaps.The Regional City Overview

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